The present invention relates to a supplying and exhausting system for a plasma polymerizing apparatus and particularly, to a supplying and exhausting system for a plasma polymerizing apparatus in which gas is supplied and exhausted in the same direction of the flow of a substrate coated by plasma polymerizing.
If a surface of a substrate such as a steel plate is coated with a thin film using plasma, a stratum tectorium having good consistency and abrasion resistance is formed. Products having the stratum tectorium are used as a magnetic disk, optical disk, carbide tool and the like. Also, if the paint-coated film generated on the surface of a steel plate is undergone plasma processing, an unplasticized paint coated steel plate having good durability and corrosion resistance. Particularly, through the processing, quality of the surfaces can be improved increasing hydrophile and hydrophobe by polymer polymerizing the surface of the substrate, and the improved substances are widely in use.
As an example, FIG. 1 is a sectional view showing an apparatus which can perform plasma polymerizing processing. Particularly, the apparatus is advantageous to coat thin film on a substrate with a great area. Also, an opposite electrode is positioned on the both sides of the substrate electrode and simultaneous polymerizing is possible thus to improve productivity. In the apparatus, the substrate 2 wound as a form of a roll is continuously fed from the unwinding chamber to the polymerizing chamber 1 and after polymerizing processing of the surface of the substrate in the polymerizing chamber, the substrate 2 is fed to the winding chamber 10 then wound in the form of a roll. The reactive gas is supplied through the reactive gas inlet 7 to the chamber maintained a certain vacuum status and plasma is generated by allowing power in the opposite electrode 4 on the upper and lower surface of the substrate. In case plasma discharge is generated in the chamber, the reactive gases in which molecular binding is broken and then the broken chains and activated cations and anions are combined to form polymerized material. On one side of the chamber, outlet 8 of the reacted gas is installed.
For this continuous processing apparatus, in case the gas inlet and gas outlet are installed in the polymerizing chamber, conventionally, the array relation is not specially considered and they are positioned so that the gas flow is formed in the vertical direction with the flow of the substrate in the polymerizing. Namely, in FIG. 1, the gas inlet 7 and outlet 8 are positioned at the left and right ends of the lower portion of the polymerizing chamber.
However, in positioning of the conventional gas inlet and outlet, there are disadvantages as follows. Firstly, gas flow in the polymerizing chamber is formed in the vertical direction with the flow of the substrate and accordingly, the reactive gas and the substrate can not react to each other sufficiently since the reactive gases stay for a short time. Secondly, gas flow in the polymerizing chamber is not formed uniformly as a whole thereof sufficient polymerizing can not be performed since the gas and substrate react in some area only. Due to the problems, the surface characteristic of the polymerized substrate is not uniform and defective products having desirable characteristics increase.
Also, in case of a continuous polymerizing apparatus, post-processing chamber can be additionally installed for post-processing after the polymerizing processing. In this case, the exhaust port of the gas inlet should be installed in the respective chambers. In case the gas inlet and exhaust port are installed, to control each gas in inconvenient and the facility becomes more complicated thus to cause main problems. Therefore, a plasma polymerizing apparatus is necessary to control gas supply and exhaust simply and easily.
Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a plasma polymerizing apparatus which increases the time reactive gas stays on the surface of the substrate and enables efficient use of the reactive gas in the polymerizing chamber.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a plasma polymerizing apparatus with a simpler component to control gas supply and exhaust smoothly.
To achieve the objects, the present invention provide a supplying and exhausting system for a plasma polymerizing apparatus having a polymerizing chamber capable of moving a substrate continuously in which gas inlet for supplying gas to a polymerizing chamber and a gas outlet for exhausting reactive gas supplied through the gas inlet and wherein the gas inlet and outlet are installed so that the reactive gas flows in substantially parallel with the moving direction of the substrate.
The polymerizing chamber includes a vertical chamber in which a substrate moves horizontally and vertically.